


Birthday Blues

by Sholio



Series: The Epic Post-Series Road Trip of DOOM [12]
Category: Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Party, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Sibling Bonding, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 18:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16623773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Danny's first birthday party since he was ten years old is mostly an accident.





	Birthday Blues

**Author's Note:**

> For this request on Tumblr: _Can I ask for a prompt where Danny gets a surprise b-day party since he hasn't had one since he was ten? (I don't know where in time this would be because even if I want one in his weird trip with ward he has been living for a while with Colleen so I will leave it to you to choose in which season this would happen)_

Ward doesn't like to admit it, but he would never even have thought about Danny's birthday if he hadn't happened to glance down while Danny was showing the Customs official his passport and noticed the birthdate on it.

"Your birthday is _tomorrow_?" he says as they walk out into the heat and humidity of Phnom Penh. "And you were planning on mentioning this, when?"

"Uh ... is it?" Danny looks equally surprised; he laughs a little. "I don't know. I didn't think about it. I haven't really thought about my birthday in fifteen years, Ward."

Ward gives him a narrow-eyed look, because Danny is Danny: he loves holidays and festivals of all kinds. He's dragged Ward to every street fair and local festival in every town they've been to in the entire Pacific Rim. There is _no way_ that Danny is this blasé about his birthday, especially since he is now avoiding Ward's eyes.

So why didn't this come up last year? Oh wait ... Ward does a little mental math. At this time last year, Danny and Colleen were Hand-hunting overseas. Plus, Ward is willing to admit he was just enough of a self-involved bastard that he doubts he would have thought of it even if Danny had been back in New York.

(And he wouldn't have thought of it this year if not for a chance glimpse of Danny's passport, but at least he's thinking of it _now._ )

"Oh look," Danny says, busy with his phone and still conspicuously avoiding Ward's gaze. "Here's a pretty decent hostel, it's got four stars and it's cheap."

"Okay, no," Ward says, and takes the phone away, ignoring Danny's startled protest. "No hostels, no AirBnBs -- let's get something decent this time. With rooms we don't have to share. We're loaded; let's act like it for a change."

With Danny's phone tucked into his pocket to stop Danny from getting them a bunk bed in a hostel under the railroad tracks or whatever the hell, Ward uses _his_ phone, and his bank account, to secure them a nice-looking 3-bedroom apartment with a balcony, central air conditioning, and a view of the river. Danny makes a couple of token attempts to get his phone back and then gives up.

"There you go," Ward says, tossing Danny's phone back. "Now we can take showers without sharing with a bunch of strangers and have an actual kitchen."

"Which you're going to use for the extensive amount of cooking you like to do."

And so they're off with the usual friendly bickering, but on the cab ride into the city proper, Ward can't stop thinking about Danny and birthdays and the life Danny's led, and in particular the kinds of things that could make someone as open and sunny as Danny clam up completely when birthdays come up.

He doesn't think it's any kind of deep-rooted trauma or anything. _Ward_ has issues around birthdays (thanks, Dad) but he really more gets the idea that it's just a painful topic for Danny. Understandably enough. Now that Ward has, more or less, managed to move beyond his vicious jealousy of Danny's happy home life, he's starting to recognize how traumatic it must have been for any kid, but especially a kid as gregarious and people-oriented as Danny, to be wrenched out of that cozy life as the beloved only child of two doting parents and flung, grieving and alone, into a place where adults mostly ignored or beat him, nobody in particular gave a damn about him, and everything familiar was an entire world away.

Ward remembers being at most of Danny's birthday parties when they were kids, because thanks to their parents' close association, the kids ended up doing almost everything together. Danny's birthdays were about like you'd expect, loaded with sugar and games and presents and adults lavishing affection on him.

Ward has a sudden, sharply guilty recollection of something he'd actually forgotten about, until now: the time that he broke Danny's brand new remote-control car -- fresh out of the box, Danny had only played with it once. Ward took a turn with the controller and steered it right over the edge of the rooftop balcony and onto the street four stories below.

"These controls are really hard," he'd said with the most innocent look he could muster, while both of the younger kids stared over the edge in shock and horror, and Danny looked like he wanted to burst into tears.

Like a lot of the stuff he did to Danny back then, he's never been entirely sure if Danny figured out that it was intentional instead of an accident, and doesn't really want to ask. Mostly he just wishes he could go back and kick his own ass from New York to K'un Lun and back again.

"Hey, Ward," Danny says, nudging him and holding up his phone. "Look. There's a night market. That sounds amazing. We should go."

"Sounds great," he says automatically. Because yeah, that's Danny, all over: sample the local food, go to the markets and take part in the festivals and probably talk the ears off the locals even if they don't speak the same language. Danny will probably have made a dozen new friends by tomorrow.

And the fact that Danny doesn't want to talk about something as fundamental as his own birthday because it just hurts too much ... that's something Ward doesn't know how to deal with.

They don't talk about birthdays again, but once they're at the apartment and he can get a few moments to himself while Danny's in the shower, he does something he would never do under normal circumstances.

He calls Colleen.

*

"I _did_ actually remember, but what I didn't remember is how long the international mail takes," Colleen says, because of course she knew when Danny's birthday was; Ward's the only one who was a big enough jerk to forget. "And I sent it to the last place I have an address for you guys, which I think was in Hokkaido."

"Yeah, we've moved on a few times since then."

"I got that impression," she says with a sigh. "Well, it'll be at your Hokkaido postal drop whenever you manage to get to it. I'll call him tomorrow -- well, day after tomorrow for me, with the date line and everything."

"What if I have the Rand jet waiting for you tonight," Ward says.

"Uh," Colleen says. "Wait, what?"

"The jet. Forget about letters and phone calls. I'll have it fueled and ready to go."

"Ward --"

"Are you saying you wouldn't show up?"

"No, I'm not saying that, not necessarily, but -- You can't just move people around like pieces on a chessboard, Ward."

"I _know_ that," he says, half desperately, and glances back at the sliding glass doors to the apartment, because he thought he heard Danny moving around in there. Also, it's about a hundred and fifty degrees out here on the balcony, and if he doesn't go back in soon, he's going to die. "It's just that I don't know what to get him, certainly nothing that can make up for ten years of being a complete dick to him and fifteen years of, you know, everything -- but _this_ I can do, it's all I can do. And he wants to see you, hell, he's dying to see you; it's just that if you're going to wait for him to say so, it might take awhile."

"He actually has said so," Colleen says.

"Oh. Well, excuse me for being discreet and trying not to eavesdrop on you guys' conversations. So what's the deal? You don't want to see him?"

"Ward!" she says in a tone of sheer exasperation that sounds almost exactly like the way Danny says his name after they've been trapped indoors together for days. Those two deserve each other, he thinks. "You realize my relationship with Danny is none of your business, right?"

"It's my business in that I have to spend every day with him and watch him pining. He really misses you."

"You're a manipulative ass sometimes, Ward," she says through gritted teeth.

"I know. Hey, if it's not mutual, just stay where you are. You don't have to come. But I'll make sure the Rand jet is waiting for you tonight."

Colleen hangs up on him.

He texts her the time and place anyway.

*

He figures it's a toss-up whether she'll actually come, and if she doesn't, well, he'll just have to figure out something else, but he gets a call from the pilot once the jet is underway, and all _right,_ one problem down. (Whether Colleen plans to punch him in the face when she gets here is a bridge he'll cross when they get there.)

So then he just very carefully doesn't mention birthdays, not even once. He gets the idea, first of all, that Danny is tiptoeing around the topic to make sure it doesn't come up, and then he starts getting the impression (especially once the morning of Danny's birthday dawns and Ward carefully doesn't say a goddamn word) that Danny is actually disappointed, which makes him feel like a cad, but damn it, he is going to spring this surprise on Danny completely unawares if it's the last thing he ever does. (Which, once Colleen is done with him, it might be.)

Danny wants to rent mopeds (God, _no_ ) and drag him on some kind of self-guided moped tour of local attractions. Feeling like only a little bit of an asshole, Ward claims to be sick and flops on his bed, at which point Danny decides to stay at the apartment and take care of him.

"Danny, for crap sakes, I ate something that didn't agree with me, it's not the first time and it won't be the last, so get out there and have fun, okay?"

Danny gives him a last look that's kind of suspicious on his way out the door. Ward tries to look ill, waits until Danny's footsteps have died away (hard to tell; he's still soft-footed as a cat) and then scrambles to his feet. He's got just enough time to get to the airport and pick up Colleen.

*

"So you didn't tell him I was coming," Colleen says, slipping on a pair of sunglasses. Ward makes subtle movements to take her bag. Colleen ignores him and shoulders it. She has her katana case slung over her shoulder -- the advantage to flying privately rather than having to go through security.

"Of course not, it's a surprise."

Colleen tilts down her sunglasses and looks over the top of them. "Did you get him a cake?"

"We're in Cambodia."

"They have bakeries here too, you know."

*

It turns out European-style bakeries are not at all uncommon here, so securing a cake isn't hard, even if they're stuck with the pre-made selection (but everything looks amazing, and Colleen reassures him that if it's got sugar in it, Danny will probably like it). She hasn't punched him yet, although she is being very reserved and very polite, which probably means she wants to.

As they emerge from the bakery into the withering humidity, Ward carrying the cake box, Colleen touches his arm. "What about decorations?"

"I wasn't exactly planning a _party_ \--"

"Look, last year on his birthday, we were camped on a hillside in rural Vietnam, being hunted by assassins. Don't get me wrong, we had a good time under the circumstances, but he hasn't had a real birthday party in fifteen years, and if you're going to drag me halfway around the world anyway, he's having a party. And," she declares, "you're paying for it."

"Fine, I'll rent a stripper and the trendiest nightclub downtown, how does that sound?"

"Some decorations will do," Colleen says.

*

Finding somewhere to buy decorations on short notice isn't as easy as finding a cake -- not that there's no kitsch to be had, there's plenty of kitsch to be had, but it's the wrong kind of kitsch. However, they come to the mutual decision that while Danny would probably _love_ cheap, tacky birthday crap hung up all over the walls, he'll probably love anything as long as it's for him, so they end up buying a ton of flowers, some green and gold silk, and an assortment of decorative paper pinwheels and lanterns. It's not going to look like any Western-style birthday party Ward's ever seen, but given the unholy mishmash of Western and Eastern influences that have gone into producing the modern-day Danny Rand, Ward thinks it's probably more appropriate than if they'd just gone for a straightforward birthday kind of thing.

Every so often, his phone chimes with an incoming text: Danny taking pictures of various interesting locations around the city and texting them back to Ward in a sort of virtual tour that is thoughtful, adorable and ... him. It's also useful for making sure they don't accidentally run into him since they know where he is at all times.

"So he's out there exploring the city all by himself on his birthday," Colleen says as they ferry the crap upstairs, after Ward makes a quick dash up to the apartment to make sure Danny hasn't shown up in the meantime. "Which he knows you know about and now thinks you either forgot again or just don't care."

"Yes yes, I know, I'm a dick, you don't have to tell me that."

Decorating for someone else's birthday is something he's never done in his life, so he volunteers to go pick up some finger food while Colleen puts up the decorations. (She gives him a look like she knows exactly what he's about, but doesn't argue.) By the time he gets back with assorted boxed and paper-wrapped heaps of everything he could find that he knows Danny likes (and a few random "whatever the hell that is" because he knows Danny likes that kind of thing too), the apartment has been flowered and silked and paper-lantern'd to within an inch of its life.

"So I'll text Danny and tell him I've taken a turn for the worse, shall I?" Ward asks cheerfully, whipping out his phone.

Colleen's hand twitches like she wishes she had the katana in it.

"Oooorrrr I could just ask him where he is," he says, and does.

He gets a happy-sounding text from Danny somewhere on the riverfront and a picture of ducks.

"I'm feeling a lot better and could grab something to eat," he texts back. "You want to come back to the apartment and we'll figure it out?"

"Be there in 20," Danny texts back.

Ward shows Colleen the phone and then hops onto a stool at the kitchen counter and smirks at her.

And so they wait. Colleen goes off to the third (unoccupied) bedroom with her backpack and comes out wearing a fresh top and lipstick, which Ward magnanimously does not comment on. However, the wait is giving him _way_ too much time to start thinking about how, the last time he tried to arrange a surprise party to reconcile two people (himself and Joy), it turned into an epic clusterfuck. He hopes Colleen isn't thinking about that too.

But this is Colleen and Danny. They're not Joy and Davos. Things couldn't go _that_ wrong ... right?

Hell, who is he kidding. Relationship things always go sideways when he's involved. It's a rule of the universe. He starts plucking the petals off a flower, scattering them on the countertop. This was a terrible idea, things are going to go completely off the rails, and Danny's going to ... well ... not hate him, because Danny genuinely doesn't seem to have that setting, but Danny might get hurt and that would be worse.

"It was nice of you to set this up," Colleen says quietly.

Ward looks up from his flower dissection. She's nibbling on a mini-skewer and giving him a sincere look.

"Yeah, well, you provided the ..." He waves a hand to indicate the general festive-ness of the room around them. "I didn't even think of it, because that's the kind of thoughtful guy I am."

"I'd say it was a team effort."

And then Danny's quick, light footsteps are outside, and Ward has just enough time for a whole flurry of last, desperate second thoughts including a half-dozen awful ways this could go horrendously wrong before Danny opens the door -- and stops and stares.

All of Ward's carefully prepared comments (most of them sarcastic) die unspoken at the look on Danny's face, which is worth the entire thing, right there.

"Hi," Colleen says quietly, and then she's crossing the floor and he's crossing to meet her, and they're hugging and he's burying his face in her shoulder and Ward decides this would be a good time to look somewhere else, so he uses the edge of his hand to sweep up the petals of the flower he tore up, dumps them in the trash, and eats a couple of the little skewers from the open box on the counter until they're done.

"Ward," Danny says, and that's all the warning he gets before he's getting hugged too.

"Oof. Yeah, happy birthday, and all." He gives up and hugs Danny back. "I hope you're not expecting wrapped presents, because there aren't any."

"I brought one," Colleen says pertly, producing a wrapped package from somewhere under the flowers.

"What the hell," Ward says as Danny lets go of him, "you had to have done that in the like two hours that you had to get to the airport, and anyway I thought you mailed his present to Hokkaido."

"You mailed me a present in Hokkaido?" Danny says, looking delighted and shaking the package.

"Yeah, well, it probably won't be there for another week or so because of overseas shipping. Don't get too excited about that," she adds, laughing. "It's not much."

Danny tears the paper off. "You brought me s'mores flavored pop tarts!"

"You brought him _what,"_ Ward says, staring in horror.

"I know you love them and I'm well aware there's plenty of snack food here, but I thought this one might be hard to find. Thank you for sending me the Kit Kats from Japan, by the way."

"They have _so_ many Kit Kats. I thought they only came in crispy chocolate; it's great. But this is better." He engulfs her in another hug.

"There are also Peeps in my luggage," Colleen says, half-smothered.

"Colleen, you're amazing."

"Does no one remember we have cake?" Ward says, because he is clearly having to deal with crazy people.

So there's cake, and they nibble on some of the approximately 4000 different varieties of finger foods that Ward managed to obtain from local street vendors. Eventually Ward starts to notice Colleen and Danny both are having an increasing amount of trouble keeping their hands off each other and keep casting longing side glances in the general direction of the bedroom, so he gets a cold soda and the Phnom Penh guidebook Danny picked up at the airport, tells Colleen not to give Danny his last birthday present of the day too loudly (that gets a look), and retires to the balcony.

It's dusk now, the heat still like an oven but more relaxing than punishing without the sun overhead. There's a lamp on the balcony, but he leaves it off and watches the colors fade from the sky and the city's neon lights come on as the night life wakes up. And he thinks about Danny's face when Danny saw the decorated apartment, and he tries to feel his way around the edges of the feeling of being happy. It's something he's still cautiously coming to terms with these days; he doesn't want to look at it too closely for fear it'll evaporate.

The night is fully dark and he's listening to the city's night soundtrack and the sound of moths rattling against the lamps of the neighboring balconies when the sliding glass door opens and Danny comes out in a wash of air-conditioned air, wearing a loose open-necked shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

"Colleen's in the shower," Danny says, which is more information than Ward wanted on pretty much _every_ level, and flops in the other cheap plastic deck chair next to Ward's. He looks incredibly relaxed and cheerful, which makes Ward realize that, in spite of Danny being his typical happy-go-lucky self for the past few months of globetrotting, there has also been a sadness and distance in him that's gone at the moment.

"So you're having a good birthday, I take it."

Danny pokes Ward in the ankle with his bare foot. "Colleen says the whole thing was your idea. Thanks, man. Really."

"Team effort," Ward says. "Sorry I had to, you know, let you think that I forgot about it being your birthday and you had to go do everything by yourself."

"I didn't think that. I just thought birthdays brought up bad memories for you and you didn't want to deal, so I was fine with that." Which is so Danny it hurts. "Anyway, I saw a bunch of temples that would have bored the heck out of you, so that was fun. And I fed some ducks."

"I'm surprised you didn't adopt a bunch of ducks and bring them back to stay with us."

"No, but I did see this stray dog ..."

Danny did actually adopt a stray puppy for a couple of days in Bangkok before he ended up finding a nice family with kids to give it to. Ward didn't shut up about it for days, which means Danny now taunts him with the threat of adopting every fleabitten stray that crosses their paths, and there are a _lot_ of them here. One of these days Ward has an ominous feeling Danny is going to make good on that threat.

Anyway," Danny says, "the night market would be open now, so I was thinking maybe we could take Colleen to that. Sound fun?"

It does actually. Before this, Ward traveled plenty for work, but he'd never traveled just for the hell of it; in fact, prior to this, he can't remember the last time he went sightseeing _anywhere_ just for fun. Family vacation trips as a kid, maybe? He hasn't even seen most of what there is to see in New York. And yeah, it's true that this trip with Danny has a purpose, technically, but there's also been a whole lot of wandering around looking at stuff just because the stuff is there. After a lifetime spent feeling smugly superior to the flocks of tourists with their cameras and their wide-eyed stares, Ward has discovered that they were probably having a lot of fun and so is he.

He still gets vaguely guilty little twinges like he should be doing something useful instead, but it doesn't happen as often anymore, and when it does, he can just get his phone or track down an internet café and spend a few hours doing Rand stuff long-distance to work out the guilt.

There's just one thing ... "You don't mind a third wheel tagging along? If you and Colleen would rather --"

"No," Danny says emphatically. "First of all, you're _not_ that. I mean, Colleen and I might want to do stuff later, we'll see, but it's still my birthday for another few hours, and I want to spend it with the people I love." He just says it matter-of-factly, that way he does.

"Night market, huh. So what've they got?"

"Market stuff," Danny says. "But at night."

And really, how can he turn down an invitation like that. "One condition," he says. "No mopeds."

Danny laughs, and Ward thinks, if this is what feeling happy is like, he's going to hold onto it.


End file.
